There are many issues involved in coupling plastic optical fiber, or light pipe, to a light source. The light pipe must be held in such a way so as to prevent mechanical damage. Mechanical damage to the light pipe could result in significant light loss and increased light pipe temperature.
Because the light pipe is made of plastic, the operating temperature of the light pipe must be held as low as possible to prevent premature failure of the light pipe. By ensuring that the coupling method thermally isolates the plastic light pipe from the light source, the light pipe temperature will not be unnecessarily increased. It would also be desirable to minimize the amount of light impinging on the coupling means to prevent increasing the temperature of the environment.
One prior art approach bundles together light pipes when coupling to a source of light. A bundle of multiple light pipes together can be unwieldy and difficult to handle. Also, if one light pipe needs to be removed they all do. It would thus be preferable if each light pipe can be easily installed individually. Preferably, each light pipe can be also easily removed from the light source.